Providing extended administrative groups in computer networks
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- receiving, with a network device, a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol and comprises a shared risk link group (SRLG) type-length-value (TLV) field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the SRLG TLV field identifies the second data stored by the value portion of the SRLG TLV field as associating the advertised link with a SRLG, and wherein the administrative group field comprises an administrative group TLV field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the Administrative Group TLV field identifies the first data stored by the value portion of the Administrative Group TLV field as associating the advertised link with the one or more administrative groups in accordance with the routing protocol;
determining, with the network device, that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field;
upon determining that the field has been repurposed, updating routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data; and
performing, with the network device, path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In general, techniques are described for providing extended administrative groups in networks. A network device comprising an interface and a control unit may implement the techniques. The interface receives a routing protocol message that advertises a link. This message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol. The field is defined by the routing protocol as a field having a different function from an administrative group field defined by the same routing protocol. The control unit determines that this field has been repurposed to store second data, wherein this second data specifies an extended administrative group for the link different from those that may be specified by the administrative group field. The control unit then updates routing information to associate the advertised link with the extended administrative group and performs path selection to select paths based on the updated routing information.
14 Citations
30 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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receiving, with a network device, a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol and comprises a shared risk link group (SRLG) type-length-value (TLV) field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the SRLG TLV field identifies the second data stored by the value portion of the SRLG TLV field as associating the advertised link with a SRLG, and wherein the administrative group field comprises an administrative group TLV field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the Administrative Group TLV field identifies the first data stored by the value portion of the Administrative Group TLV field as associating the advertised link with the one or more administrative groups in accordance with the routing protocol; determining, with the network device, that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field; upon determining that the field has been repurposed, updating routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data; and performing, with the network device, path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A network device comprising:
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at least one interface that receives a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol; a hardware control unit that receives configuration data from a user that specifies a range of values of the first data that are to be repurposed to specify second data, receives link data from a user that associates at least one of the extended administrative groups with a link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message, determines that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store the second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field, upon determining that the field has been repurposed, update routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data perform path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information, and generates a routing protocol message to advertise the link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message, wherein the routing protocol message to advertise the second link comprises a repurposed shared risk link group (SRLG) field for storing a value within the range of values to associate the link with one of the extended administrative groups rather than one or more SRLGs, and wherein the SRLG field is different than the Administrative Group field defined by the routing protocol, wherein the at least one interface transmits the routing protocol message to advertise the second link to adjacent network devices. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A network system comprising:
- two or more customer networks; and
a transport network that includes a plurality of routers, wherein at least two of the plurality of routers couple the two or more customer networks to the transport network, wherein a first one of the plurality of routers includes;
at least one interface that receives a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol;a hardware control unit that determines that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store the second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field, upon determining that the field has been repurposed, update routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data, data and perform path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information receives configuration data from a user that specifies a range of values of the first data that are to be repurposed to specify second data, receives link data from a user that associates at least one of extended administrative groups with a link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message, and generates a routing protocol message to advertise the link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message, wherein the routing protocol message to advertise the link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message comprises a repurposed shared risk link group (SRLG) field for storing a value within the range of values to associate the link with one of the extended administrative groups rather than one or more SRLGs, and wherein the SRLG field is different than the Administrative Group field defined by the routing protocol, and wherein the at least one interface transmits the routing protocol message to advertise the second link to adjacent ones of the plurality of routers.
- two or more customer networks; and
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20. A non-transitory computer-readable device comprising instructions that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:
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receive a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol and comprises a shared risk link group (SRLG) type-length-value (TLV) field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the SRLG TLV field identifies the second data stored by the value portion of the SRLG TLV field as associating the advertised link with a SRLG, and, and wherein the administrative group field comprises an administrative group TLV field defined by the routing protocol to have a type portion, a length portion and a value portion, wherein the type portion of the Administrative Group TLV field identifies the first data stored by the value portion of the Administrative Group TLV field as associating the advertised link with the one or more administrative groups in accordance with the routing protocol; determine that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field; upon determining that the field has been repurposed, update routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data; and perform path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A method comprising:
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receiving, with a network device, a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol; determining, with the network device, that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field; upon determining that the field has been repurposed, updating routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data; performing, with the network device, path selection to select one or more paths based on the updated routing information, receiving, with the network device, configuration data from a user that specifies a range of values of the first data that are to be repurposed to specify second data; receiving, with the network device, link data from a user that associates at least one of extended administrative groups with a link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message; generating, with the network device, a routing protocol message to advertise the link that is different from the link advertised by the received routing protocol message, wherein the routing protocol message to advertise the second link comprises a repurposed shared risk link group (SRLG) field for storing a value within the range of values to associate the link with one of the extended administrative groups rather than one or more SRLGs, and wherein the SRLG field is different than the Administrative Group field defined by the routing protocol; transmitting, with the network device, the routing protocol message to advertise the second link to adjacent ones of the plurality of routers.
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30. A method comprising:
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receiving, with a network device, a routing protocol message that advertises a link, wherein the routing protocol message includes a field for storing first data associated with the link in accordance with the routing protocol, and wherein the field is defined by the routing protocol as a type of field having a different function from an administrative group field as defined by the same routing protocol; determining, with the network device, that the field of the received routing protocol message has been repurposed to store second data in addition to the first data, wherein the second data specifies one or more extended administrative groups for the link different from the one or more administrative groups that are to be specified by the administrative group field; upon determining that the field has been repurposed, updating routing information to associate the advertised link with the one or more extended administrative groups specified by the second data; receiving configuration data from a user that defines one or more constraints that constrains path selection as performed by a Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) path selection algorithm, wherein the one or more constraints comprise the one or more extended administrative groups, and wherein the updated routing information comprises a graph data structure having nodes that represent network devices and edges that represent links; and performing, with the network device, a Constrained Shortest Path First (CSPF) path selection algorithm to prune the graph data structure based on the constraints and select the one or more paths based on the pruned graph data structure.
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Specification